[3] A small coasting-boat, carrying only a boom sail. [↑]
[4] A word borrowed from the Turkish, to signify a dungeon, and used when speaking of a Turkish prison. [↑]
[6] A Spanish game, forming a sort of mock tournament, the combatants being armed with canes instead of lances. [↑]
[7] A Spanish game, consisting in pelting each other with alcancías, or round earthen pots, in which flowers and other things were enclosed before they were baked (in the sun), and which fell out when broken against the shield of those at whom they were thrown. I do not know if these games were also in use in Venice, or if their introduction here is a vulgar error. [↑]
EL CONDE FERNAN GONZALEZ.
Conde Fernan Gonzalez was a bold lance. Restless as brave; when not engaged in chasing the Moors, he kept his appetite for noble exploits whetted with the dangers of the chase.
One day, the furious course of a wild boar, and his own impetuosity in the pursuit, led him far away from his companions, and the hills and leafy oaks of Lara soon hid him from sight. On went the boar, and on went the Conde after him, till, in the thickest of the forest, the brute took refuge in a hermit’s cell long deserted and forgotten, and overgrown with ivy. The trees grew so close round the spot, that the horse could not go through for the low interlacing branches, so Gonzalez dismounted, taking his sword in his hand, and wrapping his cloak round his arm by way of shield[1]. Cutting his way through to the low doorway, he found the boar lying panting at the foot of a little altar which was there.
The good Count would not hurt the animal under such circumstances, so he put up his sword into the sheath, and, before he turned to go, knelt to offer up a prayer upon the sacred spot.